I don't see anybody else here using the R26 and I was quite surprised at how little interest there was amongst tapers. Yes, it would have been better to get rid of some/all the internals and provide more mic/line inputs, but it is what it is. Well, it looks like I'm the guinea pig here, and so far, a very happy guinea pig. I finally decided to buy the R26 for the XLR's (with P48) and the 4-channel possibilities with a 1/8" plug in stereo mic, and the apparent ease to change levels for both pairs of mics on the fly. I won't use (or very much doubt I will use) the internals, so I'm never going to realise the 6 channels, but 4 channels is enough for me. I also went for the R26 after reading favourable reviews of the preamps which are apparently at least on a par with the R44 preamps. The recorder only arrived a few days ago so I have not had chance to exhaustively review it but I will tell you what I can.
Size? Yes it's a bit on the chunky side, and certainly bigger than I am used to (R09HR), but still stealthable. For 4 or 6 channels with XLR input and phantom power the size is actually quite remarkable.
I had 2 concerns prior to buyng the recorder: (i) the dual hold/power switch; and (ii) the hold switch does not disengage the level dials. My initial concern re the dual power/hold switch was allayed prior to purchase when I read the manual in detail from which it is stated that it is not possible to accidently power the unit off (whilst trying to engage 'hold') when in recording mode. I have tested this for myself and can confirm that it is NOT possible to accidently power down the unit whilst recording if you push the hold button the wrong way. That's a huge relief (although a daft design in the first place). My other initial concern was that the hold function does not lock the record level dials. That is still the case. This seems to be a common feature of a lot of new recorders now e.g. Sony M10, Tascam DR100Mkii, Olympus LS100 etc. I am resigned to taping these dials down for peace of mind during a show, but having finally got hold of the unit I can say it would be difficult (but not impossible) to accidently nudge these during a show.
The R26 uses a touch screen, and whilst I am not used to a touch screen phone, I found it very easy and intuitive to use. All the record settings you need to make on the touch screen would be made before the show, i.e. no. of channels, no. of mics, mic source(s), phantom power, mic sensitivity(s), bit depth, sample rate etc. Once these are all dialled in before the show, you don't need to use the touch screen again, the only thing to adjust at the show (after plugging the mics in and pressing the 'record/rec pause' button) would be the input level via the 2 level dials. When working in 4 channels (or 2 channels with independent left and right XLR input) these 2 level dials are very easy to adjust independently with each being clearly labelled and concurrently visible on the large screen so that there's no need to toggle or switch over in menus from one to the other.
The range on the input level dials is from 0 to 100, I haven't yet worked out where unity setting is. I'm going to start off at about 35 at my first show (with mic sensitivity on the lowest setting) and take it from there. You can set the sensitivity of all the input microphones separately. For the XLR's, there is a huge range in sensitivity calibrated in 12 stages from +4dBu to -62dBu. The plug in mics can be set to low/med/high sensitivity, as can the internals (both omni and cards).
Whilst I have not tested the recorder in a concert environment yet, the preamps have been tested by
www.avisoft.com. They report equivalent self-noise A-weighted of -124dBu for the R26 XLR analog in. This compares favourably with most of the listed recorders regarded as 'competition', although obviously the R26 is not in the same league (or price bracket) as SD722 / FR-2LE / DR680 / Marantz 671 etc etc.
I have however had the chance to carry out some power tests at home. The unit uses 4 x AA's and the manual says it is good for 10 hours when recording at 16/44 using the internals (with phantom power off). So I was expecting a realistic record time of around 3-4 hours with thirsty external mics with P48 on and at a higher resolution such as 24/96. How wrong I was - very impressive results. For the initial tests (2-channel, phantom power on) I used 2 x Nevaton MCE-400's with XLR (rated current draw 10mA each mic), 2-channel analog XLR-in, P48 on, recording 24 bit at 96kHz on to a SanDisk 32GB SDHC (Class 4) card. The results were as follows:
(a) 4 x Energizer Ultimate Lithiums - maximum record time = >9 hrs 5 mins - the batteries were not fully drained, but were down to 1 bar and would have died soon
(b) 4 x Energizer Rechargeable 2300mAh Ni-Mh, charged, discharged, charged, tested (capacities measured 2410/2340/2380/2380mAH) - maximum record time = 6 hrs 20 mins.
I then did a further test on a 4-channel 24/96 recording set-up going analog in with 2 x XLR's with P48 (as above) and line-in with a pair of CA-14>preamp>line in (plug-in-power off). The maximum record time in that 4-channel test with the Energizer 2300mAh Ni-Mh rechargeables was = 5 hrs 50 mins.
There is not much difference between the 2 and 4-channel set up with the rechargeables, presumably because phantom power is by far the dominant factor and present in both tests. Given that I got over 9 hours with Enegizer Ultimate Lithiums on 2-channel P48, I'm guessing I would get at least 8 hours on a 4-channel P48 recording with the same batteries. I might sacrifice another pack of batteries to confirm this.
These record times with phantom power in 2 or 4-channel mode are very impressive to my mind. This gives me the comfort to easily record the opening band and a 2 hour main act without any juice worries whatsoever. Also, this easily extends into festivals where a simple change of AA batteries could be made at some appropriate point during the day.
From what I've seen so far, and read on other reviews (lack of digital-in aside which is not a concern for me) at this price the R26 gets the better of most, if not all, XLR-P48 handhelds in its class in terms of number of channels, battery life and probably preamp quality too. So far so good and I am really looking forward to testing this out for real later this month!
